8-core @ 2.8GHz vs 8-core @3.0GHz. Worth it?

[nutmeg]

Hi all,

We're putting together a Mac Pro system to edit HD video footage. Wondering at this point if the $800 price difference for the speed bump from 2.8GHz up to 3.0GHz is worth it? Would the money be better spent on maxing out the RAM?


Many thanks,
Meg

 

[AviationFan]

Would the money be better spent on maxing out the RAM?

In my opinion: yes, it would be better spent that way. I have the 2.8GHz model on order; with the $800 that I saved (compared with the 3.0GHz model), I purchased 16GB of RAM from OWC. I expect this to be a significant improvement when I actually work with the computer, being able to quickly switch from one app to another, and keeping huge image, video and audio files in RAM all the time.

The only thing that will take a little longer are the long encoding sessions. Alright, so instead of encoding for 5:00 hours, it'll be 5:21, a difference of seven percent or so. If encoding is all you to, the faster processor will make a difference, but the to get a responsive editing workstation, I would spend the money on RAM instead (and on fast hard drives/RAID, for that matter).

- Martin

 

[ziwi]

It does seem a large premium for .2 more per core when the $$ can be spent on additional ram and HD's. If you look at the benchmarks the difference is not too much when you compare the price premium to it.

 

[nutmeg]

That's great, thanks so much!

 

[netdog]

According to these benchmarks, I would have to say no.

 

[QCassidy352]

3.0 is 107+% of 2.8. So the most gain you would see from going to 3.0 is a 7-8% performance boost. And you'd only see that if the processor were the sole bottleneck on what you were doing (video encoding comes readily to mind, but I can't think of anything else where that would be the case).

So in short, I agree with the others that it isn't really worth it (for the great majority of people).

 

[twoodcc]

yeah, i also say buy some ram instead

 

[Artofilm]

Buy ram,

I dont think paying $800 for a 0.2 of a processor jump is worth it. Spend the money on ram and harddrives (since you're working in HD)